The Practice of Dying and Being Dead Sample Clauses

The Practice of Dying and Being Dead. As stated above, pursuing dying and being dead are different. I have suggested that dying is related to our activities in this world, while being dead, not unexpectedly, is related to the soul’s life in the other world. True philosophers are interested in pursuing dying and being dead since they both try to be truly virtuous in this world and desire to attain pure wisdom in the other world.231 Besides, for Xxxxxxxx, without pursuing true virtues in this world and without purifying ourselves, we cannot attain pure wisdom in the other world.232 I presume that it is possible for a person to pursue dying with a view to understanding it, yet being dead cannot be practiced as long as we are alive. That said, Xxxxxxxx talks about the pursuit of both, being dead and dying; hence he seems to believe that we can practice being dead while we are still alive. As mentioned above, Xxxxxxxx is talking about τὸ μελέτημα, the rehearsal or preparation, of philosophers to separate the soul from the body. In this respect, philosophers’ business in this world is to prepare their soul for the afterlife by means of rehearsing being dead and dying, rather than achieving them. That is, τὸ μελέτημα of philosophers denotes the ways in which they live to purify themselves and try to be worthy of dwelling with gods. However, we need to note that Xxxxxxxx also mentions the pursuit (Phd. 64a6 ἐπιτηδεύουσιν) of being dead and dying. Unlike μελετάω and its cognates, ἐπιτηδεύω does not imply preparation, as Xxxx finely remarks.233 To support his point, Xxxx refers to a passage of the Gorgias, which reads, ‘if a man took care (ἐπετήδευε) to grow his hair long, his corpse will have long hair, too (524 c4-5)’. Then ἐπιτηδεύω indicates an action that is pursued and is actually done, and its effects continue after that action is complete. Here, it is fortunate that Xxxxxxxx uses ἐπιτηδεύω in the context of life and death. More fortunately, Xxxxxxxx, a bit later, says, ‘all that’s in the soul is evident after it has been stripped naked of the body, both things that are natural to it and things that have happened to it, things that the person came to have in his soul as a result of his 231 Phd. 68b4 καθαρῶς…φρονήσει. 232 See Phd. 69c2-d3 for the idea of initiation and purification. I will examine this topic further below. 233 Xxxx (1993, 135) points out that Xxxxxxxx uses ἐπιτηδεύω ‘in the sense of ‘making it one’s practice’ (cf. Gorg. 524c), not in the sense that one practices on the piano’. pur...